LITTLE VILLAGE — Neighbors can now get churros, funnel cakes, milkshakes and more at El Churro Shop, which started as a pandemic pop-up and now has a home.
Husband and wife Aldo Rios and Ana Maciel have been working on the store for months, and opened Fourth of July weekend at 3536 W. 26th St.
El Churro Shop is an extension of the pop-up business Rios started during the pandemic, All Doh’z Churros. Starting in fall 2020, he sold homemade churros through social media, then moved into having a stand on West 26th Street and at various pop-ups.
Rios said the shop is still in a soft opening phase, but community reception already has been very positive. Their opening night was supposed to be a friends and family event, but so many people walking by were interested in what was going on, so they opened up to the public.
“It was such a hit,” he said. “We were amazed and full of gratitude that the community was so excited and that they actually accepted it and received it. We want to make it as neighborhood as possible and show that we are proud of Little Village, it is a great neighborhood.”
Churros are served with a choice of house-made dipping sauces and can also come drizzled with sauces or with toppings. The coffee bar uses beans from Bridgeport Coffee and Metropolis Coffee, Rios said.
Rios, who has 14 years of culinary experience, cooked in kitchens in Texas, Mexico City and Chicago before the pandemic. Maciel and the rest of Rios’ family long have pushed him to do branch out on his own, and churros were one of the first things that came to mind, he said.
Rios said he had some knowledge of the traditional dough used to make churros, but the free time he had during quarantine gave him time to experiment with something of his own. Through trial and error, he came up with his own dough, as well as recipes for dipping sauces.
The dough at El Churro Shop is still Rios’ own creation, but he said he had to tweak the recipe slightly in order to scale up the volume for a larger commercial business.
El Churro Shop is open 8 a.m.-8 p.m. seven days a week.
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